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Congress: Counteroffer!

The Boston Globe: “The Republican plan, outlined in a three-page letter sent to the White House, sets out to raise $800 billion in new revenue over the next decade through closing unspecified tax loopholes and cut $1.2 trillion through a battery of changes, which could include raising the eligibility age for Medicare. In addition, House Republicans proposed saving $200 billion through slowing the government’s increases in payments for programs such as Social Security. The plan – which was quickly and emphatically dismissed by the White House -- ignores the centerpiece of Obama’s blueprint: allowing tax cuts to expire for the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers. But it does provide the framework for discussion in the coming days, now that both sides have publicly outlined their starting positions.”

Republicans also claimed their plan was based on congressional testimony by former Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles. But “Bowles distanced himself from the House Republicans proposal and said the ideas outlined in their letter do not ‘represent the Simpson-Bowles plan, nor is it the Bowles plan.’ ‘To reach an agreement, it will be necessary for both sides to move beyond their opening positions and reach agreement on a comprehensive plan which avoids the fiscal cliff and puts the debt on a clear downward path relative to the economy,’ Bowles said in a statement.”

More Bowles: "While I'm flattered the Speaker would call something 'the Bowles plan,' the approach outlined in the letter Speaker Boehner sent to the president does not represent the Simpson-Bowles plan, nor is it the Bowles plan," Bowles said in a statement released Monday afternoon.”

The L.A. Times: “Under pressure from the White House to make a specific deficit reduction proposal, House Speaker John A. Boehner on Monday countered with one that rejects higher tax rates for the wealthy and deeply cuts Medicare, Social Security and other safety net programs.”

Despite bipartisan support for an international treaty that endorses disability rights, “Republican senators threaten to kill the pact Tuesday based on what proponents call groundless allegations that it would encourage abortions overseas, threaten home-schooling programs domestically and elsewhere, and potentially separate children from their parents,” the Boston Globe reports. “The conservative Heritage Foundation is among opponents who also have suggested that giving an international entity advocacy powers for the disabled would erode US sovereignty and pose threats to the profits of American multinational corporations.”

Heritage Action and the Club for Growth “lashed out against a pair of decisions by Speaker John Boehner’s leadership team as House Republicans saw their tightly held grip on the right loosen a bit on Monday,” Politico writes. Heritage didn’t like Boehner’s fiscal cliff offer because he put revenue into the mix and the Club for Growth defended four members GOP leadership stripped of committee posts.

Americans for Prosperity is also among the groups critical of the proposal. National Journal: “Scoot over Democrats. The far right is launching its own attacks against Speaker John Boehner’s ‘fiscal cliff’ counter proposal—a sign that unrest could be brewing within his House GOP Conference. … Such rapid-fire conservative backlash underscores—once again—that the Ohioan and his leadership team face more than a tough fight to reach a compromise with Obama and Democrats to resolve a year-end fiscal crisis.”

“Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), freshly reelected to her ninth term in Congress, announced Monday that she would resign in February and become the president and chief executive of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Assn., the top donor to her campaigns during her congressional career,” the L.A. Times writes. “Emerson, who was elected to her late husband Bill Emerson’s seat in a 1996 special election and was the first woman to represent Missouri in the House, handily won reelection earlier this year over Democratic rival Jack Rushin with nearly 72% of the vote. One of the few women to hold Republican leadership positions in Congress, Emerson was chairwoman of the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee and sat on the House Appropriations Committee.”

“With an immigration overhaul on next year’s agenda, House Republicans must decide which members of their conference will play a visible role in the negotiations — an important consideration for a party that is struggling to attract Latino voters,” Roll Call writes.